happy holiday

{Jacob’s email to the family last Sunday.}
ho,ho,ho! Oh, ! How are all your holidays going? Thanksgiving was a blast! We had a great time. I can’t wait for Christmas.
I just love this time of year because of: (1) Halloween!(2) Thanksgiving!(3) Christmas!(4) New year’s! I wish you a merry Christmas!
Love,
Jacob

P.S.-Here are some pictures of the Salt Lake Temple.  

{Jacob forwarded some photos he sent to himself from a kiosk at Temple Square.  Me thinks this boy likes having an email address.  😉  I’m not sure of the copyright on the photos so I didn’t include them.  I will post a few we took the last time we were on Temple Square – November 28th.  The same evening he sent the photos to himself from the Visitors Center.  🙂 }  Sadly, I cannot find my SD card anywhere.  My lovely full one with photos from our trip – including the fun comics.  I will continue to search the couch cushions and toy boxes.  I know I had it at one point…  my apologies.


Comically thankful

I placed these comic papers around the tables for Thanksgiving. While the younger crowd dished up their food the older ones drew comics. Then while the adults finished eating, the younger ones that wanted drew a comic as well. Funny, thoughtful, downright silly – all were great fun! …and all made it to the fridge. 😉

*This is a place holder for all the comics I need to find on my SD card and put here – they are amazing.  The anticipation will only make “Bob the Turtle” and “Smiley Man” that much more exciting.  Coming Soon.  I promise.  *POW* *

Nutmeg Candy Candy by Cosmo Cricket
font: DJB Poppyseed

Inspiration Everywhere!

Join Jessica Sprague on a journey of inspiration.  For the next ten days Jessica is offering a free online class – Inspiration Everywhere.  It is designed for all crafters and creative souls.

Here is the class description in Jessica’s words:

“In our 10-day class together, we’ll make projects to help us gather and organize inspiration in five different categories. For each of the themes we’ll have a project to make, and different crafty techniques to call your creative muse, no matter WHAT kind of art you make!

  • Words
  • Music
  • Art
  • Tools
  • Play

I have another purpose for offering a FREE class: to help you get a feel for what ALL of my other classes are like. If you choose to, you can easily continue your education here with me in a variety of ways: Digital scrapbooking, hybrid (paper + digi) scrapbooking, card-making, photo editing, albums, photography and more! We’ll talk more about these in class, too!”

The class starts today and goes for 10 days.  If you want to play along you need to register by midnight eastern tonight.  (I will get better about letting you all know ahead of time – sorry I didn’t!!)  The beautiful part (besides it being free) is that this class (just like all her classes) can be accessed at anytime and will be available to you forever on her site.  Love that!

The steps to register for the class (which are oh-so-easy) can be found on the same page.

Happy Playtime!

Spotlight: {Autumn}

Jacob:  Autumn is artistic!

Joshua:  Autumn is silly (said with much admiration).

Katey:  I’m silly too!  and Autumn too.

Andy-roo:  Autumn says “good night” to the boys every night.

Jacob:  She tells one big secret for all of us and then she doesn’t want to leave and plays around.

Katey:  I love that Autumn lets me snuggle in bed with her sometimes.  (When it is late and they are both not on the sleepy side of life.)

Mommy:  I love that Autumn is a little mommy to Caleb.  She helps take care of him and makes sure he is happy.  I love that she adores reading.  She can read sooo many books already.  Autumn is reading the Book of Mormon Stories book and only needs help with a few words on each page.  She reads to her little sister and brothers when she gets home from kindergarten (this is her current favorite set of books to dig into) and always makes sure that she reads at least twenty minutes every day.  She is also good at telling time. (p.s.  Her teacher told me that when her students are done with centers they get to “read” books.  She said Autumn is in high demand because all the children want her to read to them when they are done.  So sweet.)

Daddy:  Autumn never does anything half-way.  When she is sweet, she is super sweet – with kisses and hugs and snuggles and an adoring smile.

Autumn loves to help out and now has two chores at home that are all hers.  She gets to feed Duke and sweep the kitchen floor.  In her free time you can find Autumn drawing, day dreaming, playing with friends, painting her nails and dreaming up fun ideas.  Autumn loves a good, colorful, sparkly craft and adores sweets.  She always yells her goodbyes to her friends when I pick her up from school.  Even her teacher and classroom helper get a shout-out.  She is a sweet girl with a compliment on the tip of her tongue.

We love our lively, colorful, smart, kind, fun-loving girly girl Autumn.

{photos from 16 October 2010 – fishing up the canyon}

You know you have a big family when…

Every night I pray for “our little family”.  I always mean the family that lives under our roof.  Every night Jim Bob snickers.  I just haven’t considered six children a large family.  I grew up 4th of eleven.  11 is getting there.  6, not so much.  Our days are full of crazy fun and sometimes just crazy – that’s a given.

This summer we started getting the obvious big family jokes.  We were walking away from our county fair and someone said to their daughter, “Don’t walk with the Pipes.  You might get lost in there.”  I was a little taken back, not because I thought it was cruel or unwarranted.   I just didn’t consider our family to be big.  I responded, “We’d probably just take her right home”.  Classy, I know.  Still not sure what I would say if/when it happens again.

Tonight I’m starting to think we might be getting there.  The reason?  We opened a brand new container of yummy berry cheesecake ice cream, scooped cones for everyone and it was gone.  Crazy.  They were on the bigger side, but still.  Wow.

My prayers might be worded a little differently tonight.  😉

Normal number 1 and Cherry-o!

We took a trip this summer.  It was wondrous.  We visited family, ate lots of yummy food, played hard, slept on the trampoline, celebrated a birthday, helped a brother and sister move, set up or went to a lego exhibit, visited a wildlife refuge, went to a 3D movie (How to Train Your Dragon), played with a couple sets of grandparents and just had a grand time.

We don’t usually eat out much, but this trip was a little different.  We ate at Jack-in-the-Box on the way up (breakfast at dawn), once at Sonic while we were there (with those yummy little ices on a hot, hot day), and at Wendy’s on the drive home.  I didn’t think anything of it until a few days later when Andrew was playing with some different cousins.  He was thirsty and nonchalantly placed an order:

“Mom, I want to order two milkshake drinks of water.  A milkshake normal number 1”

One for him and one for his sweet cousin.  They then proceeded to play “cherry”, which is known in some worlds as cheers.

His cousins taught him and I think it’s downright adorable.

Cherry!

Andrew's recipe for ice…

And I quote:

“There are five ingredients to make ice.

1.  Get water.

2.  Freeze it in the freezer.

3.  You have to cut it.

4.  It comes out nice and good.

5.  It’s cold.”

He is pretty much a gourmet ice chef.

Happy Day Aunt Vicki!!!

We are so glad you were born!  There are so many of life’s lessons I have learned from you.  Life is meant to be enjoyed.  I remember loving the times I was able to visit your family.  I remember you flipping pancakes across the room for us to catch on our plates.  I remember when things did not go as planned and a pancake landed in a flower pot.  We were daring each other to eat the dirty breakfast and you just laughed and laughed about it.  Thank you for your fun-loving ways.  I remember being young and running into your kitchen after playing for hours outside in your beautiful and fun yard.  You would pull down a bucket of delicious looking cookies.  Oh, but those cookies did not come free.  A quick hug and a smooch was required.  And one of those lessons fit in as well.  You would tell me that my kisses were not to be just given to anyone.  Trading kisses for cookies was fine – as long as it was you and not just any nice looking young man.  That lesson, and my love of cookies, stuck with me.  Thank you!  When I did find a young man that I wanted to spend forever kissing, we got married and started our family.  I remember walking across campus at college and talking with you on the phone sharing the news.  We were sooooo excited, but I was also very nervous.  There were so many aspects that were brand new and I felt a touch overwhelmed.  Near the end of the conversation you commented that you hoped I would enjoy the labor of bringing a little one into this world.  I remember being shocked and thinking “really?”.  Up to that point I had heard many awful stories of pain and troubled times.  You reassured me that it could be wonderful.  How thankful I was that you shared that calm perspective.  It was a truly wonderful, enjoyable experience.  The first of many birth-days in our family.  Thank you!  As we all celebrate your birthday we wish you all the best. The best of fun, laughter-infused, kissy, cookie-filled, miraculous and magically wonderful days in your life.  We love you!!  Becky, Jim Bob and family

Worst Favorite

Asked Joshua this evening to tell me his favorite part of his day.  He asked me if he could tell me his “worst favorite” first.  Okay.  So, the worst was that he crashed his bike on the way home from school.  His favorite was that he stopped at his Grandma Wilson’s house to clean up his hands and get a little sympathy.  While there she said it was nothing a little Tom and Jerry and a brownie wouldn’t fix.  That was his favorite part.

Isn’t it amazing how sometimes the best things come about because of the worst?

p.s.  I can’t wait to be a grandma.  Especially one like Grandma Wilson.

Endless Summer

Sometimes the beach just isn’t close enough.

Sometimes you have to take matters into your own hands.

This magical magnetic creation is made using Dani Mogstad’s “Take Me Away” vacation kit (digital):

The other supplies needed are magnetic tape, scissors, a magnetic tin (mine is recycled), and sand:

I made a fun label and printed my sandcastle sections and decorations.  Then I stuck them to the magnet strip and cut around.  I also glued some real sand onto the castle pieces.  I got a big bag at Walmart for $3 and used the rest in a tub for more sandcastle building.  When I had a nice size collection of pieces I put them in the tin.

Here are a few photos to get an idea of how big the tin is:

Wow, Katey was being a ham:

The kit was then ready to be assembled as desired.

Here’s just one of many possibilities:

Here’s to a summer filled with sandcastle building (real and magnetic)!

p.s.  Jacob’s first creations using the kit:

He even took the photo.  (Because, obviously that is what you do.  😉 )

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